WLP001 vs. US-05 Dry Yeast Comparison - Brew Dudes

[@iflanzy]

$12 for dry yeast seems like such a waste...I'm curious if White Labs thinks people will keep buying it just because of their name or if people are going to start buying more of the other brands. I've pretty much cut out White Labs completely at this point because of price.

[@pv4669]

Great comparison. I was a 100% White Labs (WL) user up until a couple of years ago. I moved and downsized my brewing system to an Anvil 6.5 and began to simplify things and started using a lot of dry yeasts so I didn't have to make starters. I am completely happy with my beers. Clearly WL has seen a shift to dry yeast and so they make WLP001 in a dry form. They've become quite a large company with multiple facilities around the world. Makes you wonder why their product is 2x that of Fermentis or Lallemand. Let's face it; we make home brew and it will never be like commercial beer. I say save your money and remember what Charlie Papazian said: RDWHAHB. Thanks Dudes!

[@richardcagle5475]

I like the beer I make more than the beer I usually buy at the store though. Kind of a lot. No, I won't ever be AB Inbev, but their main line of beer sucks anyways. Cheap commercial crap. Just like I make better steaks at home than most steakhouses, I make better beer than the bulk at the store.

[@marklpaulick]

Great Content! Love you guys. I think Mike suffered from “early closure” and confirmation bias. He went looking for that us05 peach ester, found it right away and that made up his mind, then all the other details followed with what he knows about each yeast. Very interesting to watch and love him for keeping this first take published. I’m sure you have better palletes than I do, Identification of flavors is crazy hard. But I think the psychology and bias part of this is interesting!

[@BrewDudes]

I completely agree with this assessment. I just wanted to see if I could be right on one aspect alone. Rewatching it and listening to my descriptors, namely the hop presence, it should have been easy to pick out the WLP001. I knew I was boxing myself in but I'm always so careful so I figured what the heck I'll shoot from the hip on this one. Cheers! -Mike

[@Tricky_Adventures]

Thanks. I was surprised you noticed such a difference between the two yeasts. Keep at it. Cheers.

[@Skid-Baxter]

That was a great experiment. I'm fascinated by the color difference between each yeast. Brew on! 🍺

[@dbendinger]

Great job guys! I wish when you talk about them that you call out which one you are talking about. Not just, "this one". I was listening to it while I was driving so I could me see the screen. I had to go back and rewatch it so I knew which comments went to which yeast.

[@chrisl2285]

Interesting video. My last four brews included three with US-05 and one with WLP001 and the only one that came out good was the WLP001 brew. I went to a Facebook homebrew page for advice and the US-05 peach ester came up. I'm not sure that was the problem with my three US-05 brews, but I think it might be. They don't necessarily taste "peachy" but a well known homebrewer mentioned the peachiness can come across as more overly sweet, than peachy, which describes my brews, exactly. My FG's were appropriate, so it wasn't an attentuation issue.

[@skdax123]

Thanks for another useful and entertaining video, great side-by-side shot of the dry yeast, that's very interesting!

[@cain1s]

I like this video comparison. Great new angle.

[@janetpiez3393]

Nice! There are so many variables (temp, pitch rate, lag time, first vs bottom of the kettle) to consider, but they are apparently different. I bet the differences will be different with more conditioning. Isn't beer great?

[@tylerb6081]

Canadian here. Yeah. For us it's $16 vs. $6 CAD. Yikes! Good on White Labs for making some dry strains available. However, their price structure is totally out of whack compared to the other choices on the HBS shelf. How is White Labs going to get market share on dry yeast if their price points are hitting the moon? FYI - Lallemand actually produces WLP001 dry yeast on contract, so guess this is what happens when two companies are involved; the customer pays double or more! Keep an eye out for Apex - San Diego and Cellar Science - Cali (both are AEB yeasts?). Way cheaper and worth a try. Would be nice to see a follow up video with cheap alternative chico yeasts. Also, WHC labs has a strain called 'LAX' which should be good price point and will be available soon in Canada to homebrewers.

[@Y_sol]

Great video. Can't wait until my LHBS starts importing WL.

[@GodfreyTempleton]

What a great video, revealing how it's all subjective.

[@Hannes_Lind]

Hmmm seems yeast is expensive in the US. I can get a pack of US-05 for 3,92 USD here in Sweden and the WhiteLabs is around 10,80 USD.

[@cindy99toker]

Depends on the source, I just bought 6 packs of US-05 for $20

[@pattonmoore]

A friend and I brewed a "double batch" (2 - 5 gallon batches of red ale) and used S04 on one and S05 on the other. I preferred the 05 batch and my friend preferred the 04. The 05 batch was less malty than the 04 but otherwise very similar.

[@slowrvr]

$12?!? That’s like 17-18$ up here in the Great White North. I’d definitely want to go to the trouble of harvesting the yeast or overbuilding a starter to save some.

[@iknomorethanu]

Thank you for this video

[@jean-raphaellavoie34]

Good stuff thanks for the experience guys. Have you ever compared us 05 and 34/70 side by side?

[@BrewDudes]

Not yet, but we can. That would be an interesting pairing. Cheers! -Mike

[@mikeandteresanoonan]

Interesting experiment. I would be interested also for a comparison with CellarScience's Cali. My brewshop has a selection of CellarScience yeasts for the price of $2.75 compared to the other yeast brands. For the few brews that I have made, I have been happy with Cali but there is not a lot of information or reactions about the yeast.

[@JamieRichardson2111]

Very interesting. Cheers guys

[@tobyschneider1784]

This is a question that is possibly connected to your upcoming stuff on malts. Do you guys know of a good app that can take your malt inventory and tell you a beer you should make to use what you have? Also, what flavor profiles will the malts impart on the finished beer.

[@brianbarker2670]

Interesting video. Seems like there's a movement towards dry yeast over liquid. Perhaps its because there seems to be increased variety in dry that could only be previously found in liquid yeasts, Thanks

[@Soupy_loopy]

Price and shelf life makes dry yeast something to consider. But, yeah, they need to keep bringing more variety. I'm not a huge fan of American Ale yeast for my brews. I haven't really found a dry yeast that I like as much as WYeast British Ale 1098.

[@jshall14]

⁠@@Soupy_loopyThe difficult thing is some strains just won’t survive the drying process or if they do, not well. Kolsch strains are difficult. It’s why Lallemand discontinued its Köln strain.

[@Soupy_loopy]

@jshall14 I don't think I tried Safale S-04 yet. Maybe I should try that. I probably didn't try it because it said "fruity" in the description.

[@viper29ca]

Are they not both Chico yeast?

[@wrayzor97]

White Labs $12 and US-05 $6. I’ll keep using US-05.

[@viper29ca]

Wouldn't think yeast would be more expensive in the US than Canada. US05 is like $6 CDN up here. That's like $3.60US$ Liquid WLP001 is only $17CDN Lallamand version of that yeast is only like $5

[@jshall14]

The dry WLP001 is made by Lallemand

[@Plineythedumber]

Lallemand yeasts are cheeper and give great results no need for more expensive yeasts like white labs or imperial save your money.

[@ColinLeuze]

I wonder how Pac-Man would stack up against the two

[@PatriciaWhite-g9i]

Omer Route